Smriti vs Madhu debate: It's okay to ask why Irani got the job

Let’s give it up for Smriti Irani, our new HRD minister. She has managed to do the impossible - unite Narendra Modi’s most diehard fans and staunchest foes in common cause. “Someone remind me. Did Rabindranath Tagore go to university? He certainly established one & had enlightened views on education,” tweets Swapan Dasgupta. From the other side of the ideological divide Kavita Krishnan tweets “Congress will never give up elitism! Why jeer at @smritiirani degree? Critique her politics; policies. ‘Qualified’ Sibal was disastrous HRD!” And from somewhere out in the Page 3 stratosphere Shobhaa De adds her two cents. “Smriti Irani, lagey raho. The real illiterates are your critics. Show them the true meaning of education – it goes with culture and decency.” Looks like our Tulsi bhi kabhi Munnabhai /Mark Twain/Rabindranath Tagore thi. Not bad going at all. But why this tizzy? First here’s what daring to question Smriti Irani’s qualifications to be HRD minister is not. It’s not elitist. The media has fixated on her degree or lack thereof. Madhu Kishwar kicked up a Twitterstorm by first dissing Irani as “merely class 12 pass” and “fashion model” and “tv serial bahu”. But then she tried to explain her rationale by tweeting “Don’t mind if Irani made DeputyPM in recognition of exceptional talent. But to lead India out of current educational mess, need different type.” Kishwar was trying to say it’s about expertise, not degrees and questioning her expertise should not be construed as class warfare. If the story was only a story about degrees, one could ask why Najma Heptullah, a Ph.D in cardiac anatomy was shunted into minority affairs or whether Arun Jaitley’s LLB would be especially useful in matters of high finance. [caption id=“attachment_1546731” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Smriti Irani. IBN Live.[/caption] It’s not sexist. While some of Irani’s more sneering opponents have gone the airhead bimbo route, raising questions about Irani’s qualifications is not automatically misogynist. In fact, it would be sexist and patronizing to give her a pass because she’s a woman. Just because she’s a celebrity does not mean she is an airhead. To be fair, Irani didn’t just parachute in from Tinseltown for this election like some other actors. She’s actually risen (very fast) through the ranks of the BJP and been vice president of the party’s Youth Wing in Maharashtra and headed the BJP Mahila Morcha. Let’s just say she’s not Hema Malini or a Moon Moon Sen whose electoral success is all about cashing in on their glamour and their leaders’ coattails (or pallu). And it’s not unpatriotic. Lord forbid that anyone, even Madhu Kishwar who made that starry-eyed 13-part home video on Modi should question our new PM. For many Modi supporters, his mandate means his decisions should be unquestioned. But in fact, it’s the size of his mandate that has spurred this debate. If he was heading a large unwieldy coalition like UPA2 people would understand that he had to accommodate all kinds of partners in his council of ministers and that meant many square pegs in round holes. Modi’s ministry picks are getting as much attention as they are because he actually has a much freer hand than his predecessors in choosing the right people for the right job. So it’s perfectly valid to ask whether Smriti Irani’s main qualification is her “chhoti bahen” proximity to Modi or is there a secret white paper she has written about the state of our education that we don’t know about? There are really a couple valid questions to be asked about this whole HRD brouhaha. And neither of them involve comparing her qualifications to Sonia Gandhi’s or Tagore’s or Kapil Sibal’s. Does a minister need expertise or an ability to listen and learn? Narendra Modi who has an MA in Political Science isn’t exactly a rocket scientist. But he is charge of space and atomic energy. But what Modi has already proven is that he has the ability to be a quick learner and bureaucrats have said that he listens carefully to good ideas. Many ministers come with zero competency in their particular ministries. But they have long experience as adminstrators, perhaps as chief ministers of a state, that stand them in good stead. In fact, while an Ajay Maken might sneer at her lack of degrees an unnamed Congress leader tells The Telegraph Smriti Irani as a “modern” person is not such a bad choice for a sensitive ministry. “The denial of the HRD ministry to hardcore RSS leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi, who played havoc with the education system during Vajpayee’s rule, is a positive signal,” the leader says. Irani clearly has political chops. She is a good communicator. She is a fighter. Does that automatically mean she’s ready to be cabinet minister and head such a big and policy-heavy ministry is the question? Or would she have benefited by being a minister of state first till she found her footing? Is the HRD ministry different from some other ministries? Academic Andre Beteille says “In the modern world, we need to have someone who has some grasp of the education system. He or she may not necessarily be a vice-chancellor. But it would not be easy to take charge as minister unless he or she has knowledge or experience inside the system.” This competency has nothing to do with degrees per se. Mamata Banerjee has just taken higher education away from Bratya Basu, the theatreperson and college professor originally entrusted with the job. His college experience didn’t prevent him from messing up the Teacher Eligibility Test examinations in Bengal. Laloo Prasad Yadav does not have fancy degrees but he had the last laugh when Harvard and Wharton came knocking at his door asking him to explain how he turned around Indian railways. It is about interest and passion. Uma Bharti is 6th standard pass. But she has a demonstrated passion about cleaning up the Ganga and no one is really questioning that appointment. That’s where Swapan Dasgupta’s Tagore analogy falls flat. Tagore actually wrote and thought a lot about what he felt were the limitations of the kind of formal education he had to endure. Vishwabharati was his attempt to design a school that he would have liked to have had available to him as a student. Perhaps it was the failures of our education system that forced Smriti Irani to quit after XIIth standard. But Irani, to the best of our knowledge, has not shown any particular passion for discussing those failures as of yet. “Maybe she has a passion for education,” said Yashpal, the former UGC head. Maybe. We don’t know. Incidentally Uma Bharti too has been an HRD minister but in the pre-Twitter age. A degree by itself proves nothing. Rajnath Singh’s MSc in Physics will do little for him in the Home ministry. But the process of going through getting a higher degree hopefully enhances a person’s ability to reason, think, put forth an argument and absorb and analyze data. It doesn’t mean that someone without a formal degree cannot do any of that. It’s just something they have to prove. Ultimately that’s what a Smriti Irani will have to do. She will have to prove she can live up to her appointment. When he went to stump for her in Amethi, Modi said he was impressed by the work she did in Gujarat after he told her to take charge of some districts there. “Smriti Irani hai kaun?” Modi had thundered in response to Priyanka Gandhi’s dismissive comment about Irani. Then he’d answered his own rhetorical question. Smriti Irani is a citizen of India. That’s good enough. That might be good enough to run for election. Whether it’s good enough to be HRD minister is up for debate. A debatable choice does not mean it’s the wrong choice. As of now, Smriti Irani, should get the benefit of the doubt. That does not mean the doubts go away.